Archive for July, 2011
Catch Your Own Second Wind
with author, therapist and life-style coach, Cami Ostman, M.S.
Do you feel a call, deep inside of you, to make a change in your life? To live more fully with vibrancy, authenticity and verve? If so, maybe you’re hearing the call to catch a second wind. What is this call and where does it come from? More importantly, how do you answer it?
The Call can come from any number of directions or circumstances. It probably tip toes up to you noiselessly. Perhaps you are taken aback by an ordinary, expected life event that strikes you harder than you thought it would: you see your first gray hair, your youngest child graduates from college, or your ailing parent passes away. Or it could be that you’ve made a difficult but necessary decision such as to change careers or get a divorce. Still more startling is the Call when it takes you by surprise or is particularly tragic. Perhaps you lose your job or your spouse has an affair.
Sometimes the Call comes gradually. You may have been bored with your life for a long time, or perhaps you’ve struggled with depression. Then one day, it quietly dawns on you that you’ve had it up to your eyebrows with the boredom/depression/anxiety—whatever is plaguing you.
If you are connecting with the above description, perhaps it’s time to take action. Join author, therapist, life-style coach and back-of-the-pack runner Cami Ostman for a life-changing five-week online course! Cami’s book, Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, chronicles how she changed her life, challenging long-held religious beliefs, healing from a broken marriage, and turning herself from an unlikely athlete into a slow but vivacious marathoner on every one of the world’s continents.
Cami now leads you through some of the behind-the-scenes exercises and goal-setting tasks she practiced in order to change her life and catch (and sustain) her second wind. This is an intensive 5-week online course during which you’ll receive her newly developed material meant to help you discover, define and
This course is for you if:
- You have a childhood dream you still long to make come true
- You’ve faced a crisis that has made you ask, “Who am I?”
- You’re burned out from your job or your life
- You daydream about doing something extraordinary but can’t seem to figure out how to pull it off
- You’ve been struggling with a problem for longer than you care to say and you’re ready to get out of your rut
- You are re-evaluating your past and deciding how to move forward
- Define your “second wind” dream, direction and/or goal
- Understand what has held you back and how you can push through your personal barriers
- Create a plan for building a support system
- Become the author of your self-definition
- Celebrate every victorious step in your re-definition process
- Get ready to achieve your dream, move in your new direction or reach your goal
How does it work:
- Readings – Five Mondays in row, you’ll receive a “chapter” of Cami’s new book, Catching Your Own Second Wind.
- Groundwork – You’ll also receive a series of exercises to work on for the week. Each exercise is designed to encourage, push, pull, and support you in embracing your authentic self and living out your dreams. When you complete your homework, you can send it to Cami and receive individualized, written feedback (comments and additional questions or exercises as applicable).
- Three Group Support Calls – After weeks one, three and five, join Cami and up to five other participants on a conference call to receive group teachings, feedback and encouragement.
- The Blog – Comment on camiostman.net to engage with others participating in the course.
Details:
- When: Next group begins Monday, September 12, 2011 and runs until October 5 (Conference calls take place on Sept. 12 & 26 and Oct. 10)
- Cost: $199
- How to sign up:
- 1. Send an email with your intent to participate to clostman@live.com (include your name, email and phone number).
- 2. Pay via Paypal by clicking HERE. When payment is received, you will get an introductory email from Cami.
Yesterday we put on our first Wind Horse Half-Marathon and Half Marathon Run for Education. I was excited and terrified as I awoke early to set up for the race to steady rain. Any run in Bellingham is likely to be punctuated by rain, but we usually think of mid-July as a fairly safe time to plan for clear skies.
Nonetheless, over 50 runners showed up to participate and we had an amazing time in the warm downpour and the mud. Many of those who participated were members of the local running community who deserve a special shout out for supporting us. Thank you all for joining in! Others traveled to Bellingham from out of town (like my long-standing, dear friend Charlie – it was awesome to see him and I only wish we’d had more time together) and we appreciate your effort in getting here and your participation, as well.
My buddy, Charlie is in the black shirt. Keep up the good work, Chuck!
A few moments stand out for me. Here’s an abbreviated list:
- Rachel coming over the finish line, 8 months pregnant, carrying Bryan’s bib number!
- Bolor presenting the traditional, ceremonial scarf to runners at the finish line.
- Logan (number 51, age 12) and Charlie (number 50, age 12) receiving their relay race medals. Great job, you two.
Charlie and Logan, runners and champions!
- And the crazy, awesome help from Bellingham’s Team in Training group and numerous other individuals who volunteered to take care of our runners.
I was not alone in the planning of this event. Our directorial group (Andrea, Bolor and myself and our supportive partners/pals Janna, Eric and Bill) are already looking forward to next year!!
Results for the inaugural Wind Horse Half Marathon and Half Marathon Relay Will be posted soon at: http://windhorserun.com/!
My friend Sharon is a beginning runner. She’s dabbled with it over the years, like a lot of us, and then this year she set herself a goal of running a 5K. A regular walker, Sharon’s plan was to work herself up to running for twenty minutes at a time and taking two-minute walk breaks.
I got reports by text message periodically: “Just ran for 15 minutes without stopping!” Or, “19 minutes. Felt good.” When her 5K day arrived, Sharon had met her goal; she could run for twenty minutes at a time without stopping! I wanted to be with her on the day she ran her race, so I joined her at Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA where it started and crashed her party.
We had a perfect day. Sharon’s four-year-old niece and her mother (Sharon’s sister) joined us and we all wound our way through the park for 3.1 miles and finished together—victorious—in about 45 minutes! Sharon had her 5K under her belt and she was feeling strong.
Sometime during the space of time she was training for the 5K, I came across a press release for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon and posted it on my Second Wind Facebook page. I’d just done my first women-only race (the Happy Girl Run in Bend Oregon) and totally enjoyed the sisterhood energy. I was contemplating signing up for the Tinker Bell for January, 2012. Sharon saw the article on the Tinker Bell race on my page and called me up. If there’s one thing my pal Sharon will do almost anything for, it’s a trip to Disneyland.
“It’s a half marathon you know,” I said when she told me her intentions.
“I know.”
“That’s 13.1 miles, you know.”
“Yep,” Sharon said. And just like that she’s training for a half marathon.
I’m so excited for and proud of Sharon. For those of us who run long distances on a regular basis, it can be hard to remember how much courage it took that first time to say out loud that you were training for a long distance race. What nerve! What audacity it was to sign up for that first race. And then the second one. And the third.
This weekend, Sharon drove up to Bellingham to do the 44th Annual Chuckanut Footrace, one of the oldest [consecutive] footraces in Washington State. This is a 7-mile route along the Interurban Trail with upwards of 800 runners. Seven miles gets Sharon halfway to the half marathon. I was planning on doing it with her, but was asked to MC the event at the last moment, so she was on her own (with some moral support from Bill). Sharon completed her race in 1:54!
Follow my friend here as she gets ready for the Tinker Bell Half!